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Many Scout Groups claim the title of Oldest Scout Group in their respective countries.

Due to the rapid growth of Scouting, it took some time for central organisations to be established, and the earliest groups were only registered some time after their first meeting. Some groups first met under the banner of another organisation, including the Boys Brigade, churches or schools, and only officially became Scout groups later. This often makes it difficult to establish which groups started first. Today, national Scout associations often do not take a stance as to which was the first group in their country.

Birth of Scouting

Scouting is usually considered to have started on 1 August 1907 with a camp run by Robert Baden-Powell on Brownsea Island. Thereafter Baden-Powell began promoting Scouting in Britain, and Scouting for Boys, the first Scout handbook, appeared in six fortnightly installments in a boys' magazine starting in January 1908. Boys began forming Scout patrols and flooding Baden-Powell with requests for assistance.

The Scouting movement developed rapidly from here, first through the British Empire, and shortly afterwards around the world.

United Kingdom

The first groups were formed in the United Kingdom. The 1st Glasgow Scout Group, Scotland, claims to be the first registered Scout Group, having a certificate dated 26th January 1908 issued by the Scouting Association.

British Empire

The first recognized overseas unit was chartered in Gibraltar in 1908, followed quickly by Malta. Canada became the first overseas Dominion with a sanctioned Boy Scout program, followed by Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Outside the British Empire

Chile was the first country outside of the British Dominions to have a recognized Scouting program.

The 1st Sliema Scout Group in Malta was founded in 1909. It is the oldest Scout group outside the UK.

By 1910 India, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, France, Russia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Mexico, Argentina, Greece, The Netherlands and the United States had Boy Scouts too.

Finland

Toimen Pojat (Unga Fribyggare in Swedish), a Scouting troop in Kauniainen, Finland was established in 1910. Toimen Pojat is the oldest continuously operating Scout troop in Finland. During the Russian ban on Scouting in the 1910s before the Finnish independence in (1917), the troop operated underground. Many traditions that distinguish the troop formed during that period.

India

Sethna's 18th West Bombay Scout Group was established in 1914, after Rustomji Edulji Sethna (1898-1954) came across a book called Scouting for Boys, written by Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement. He was enamoured by the book and formed India's first Scout group for native boys. Prior to that, there existed some Scout groups, but they were primarily for the British expatriates who were ruling India then.

United States of America

• First Boy Scout Troop in the United States in Burnside, Kentucky
• First Boy Scout Troop in the United States in Pawhuska, Oklahoma
• First Boy Scout Troop in the United States in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania

Other claimants

Mafeking Cadets

During the Siege of Mafeking (1899-1900), boys in the town formed the Mafeking Cadet Corps, made famous by Baden-Powell in the opening chapter of Scouting for Boys. However, the cadets were not themselves Scouts.

See also

• Scouting memorials
• Scouting museums
• St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong

External links

• 1st Glasgow, claimant to be Britain's and the world's first registered Scout group
• Sethna's 18th West Bombay Scout Troop, claimant to be India's oldest Scout group
• 1st Claremont Scout Troop, claimant to be South Africa's oldest Scout group
• Troop 20 in Brookyn, New York, claimant to be the oldest Scout group in the United States of America.
• 1st Merrickville Scout Group, Ontario, Canada, claimant to be North America's oldest Scout group
• 1st Sliema Scout Group, Malta, claimant to be the oldest Scout group outside the United Kingdom
• 1st Flixton Scout Groupclaimant to be the oldest Scout group in Urmston and District, Greater Manchester West, United Kingdom